Ethics in Business Summative Assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Ethics in Business Summative Assignment - Essay Example However, Vin Diesel has recently become a vegetarian and no longer consumes the product. Amie feels disturbed by the ethical ramifications of the celebritys endorsement and is pondering how to proceed with the advertising project in the face of ethical concerns. Individuals in the advertising business, or even amongst general society, are often challenged when they consider ethics and legality to be similar; however ethics and the law are two very distinctly different things (Nickels et al, 2005). Amie, the copywriter for Laird & Laird, questions the ethical appropriateness of using recent vegetarian convert Vin Diesel as the spokesperson for Basils Best bacon. Because the celebrity no longer consumes the product, Amie feels that consumers may be unintentionally misled by the endorsement, since potential health issues are being intentionally omitted from Diesels promotion of the product. However, the Advertising Standards Association has established that so long as the endorser can accurately testify to verifiable personal use of a product, with no mention of strictly present usage, the celebrity endorsement is legally valid. I believe that Amie is engaged in such a dilemma to where she is ineffectively relating legalities with that of ethi cal issues, thus she is not able to separate the two very different viewpoints. The first step that Amie needs to take to satisfy her apprehension is to adequately measure her perceptions to determine whether an ethical situation actually exists. Marketing communications and advertising messages must consistently be accurate and truthful in order to meet appropriate standards (Gershon & Buerstatte, 2003). With this in mind, it has been clearly illustrated through both personal communications with Vin Diesel and in his legalised testament to his historical satisfaction with the consumption of Basils